Escupitadors De Muerte (Capitulo Cinco)
by Random Antagonist
Summary: The fifth part of Electra Medea's Round Robin story.


death spitters 5

Annie Riddle is settling down to read a trashy romance novel she got from the library, and has just poured herself a cup of chai tea, when the doorbell rings. Annie sighs in disgust, brushes some old cigarette ashes off of the chair (she's trying to give up smoking; it's difficult when you don't have anyone around to remind you), and opens the door, expecting to see the Avon lady. 

Instead, it's Rachel. She's leaning against the doorpost; her makeup is a mess, and there are tears dripping down her shirt. 

Annie helps her only daughter to her feet. "Honey, why aren't you in school? Did they expel you?" She guides Rachel into the house and sits her down on the sagging couch. 

Rachel gulps back tears, and sniffles. "No, they didn't expel me or anything. It's not that." She bursts into tears again. Annie digs in her pocket and hands Rachel a Kleenex. 

Rachel wipes her face and regains her composure somewhat. "Sorry. No, I'm just sort of having some trouble." 

"Guy trouble?" Annie asks. Rachel nods, and her heart breaks. Annie feels a surge of hatred for the man who has done this, who has reduced her strong, independent daughter to a crying mess. "Aw, honey, it's just a guy. They're fickle, they'll love you to death one second, drop you like a hot potato the next. Whoever it was, he wasn't worth it." 

Rachel shakes her head. "Mom, he was different. This was—" she blows her nose loudly "—Harry Potter." 

Annie nods. "Ah." It's all clear now. She sits down next to Rachel and hugs her. "Forbidden love, huh?" 

"It wasn't that," Rachel says. "I mean, I protected him from Dad." She wipes her nose. 

"Did I ever tell you about how I met your father?" Annie asks. 

"Tell me," Rachel says. 

Annie sighs, lost in a cloud of memory. "It was, oh, twenty years ago. It was at the post-graduation party for Slytherin. We were all getting drunk, talking about how we were going to take over the world. It was about three in the morning, and I was lying on the couch in a daze, wondering what in the world I was going to do with my life. 

"Then someone, Narcissa Swancandle, I think, suggested we hold a Summoning. We all thought it was a great idea, so we drew the chalk symbols in the middle of the floor, lit a few candles, held hands, and started chanting. Within a few minutes, the air turned black. A dark presence arrived within the circle." 

Rachel snuggles up to her mom. "And it was Dad?" 

Annie nods. "Yes, it was your father. He had been a seventh-year when I was a first-year, and he had taken the name of Voldemort during my fifth year. Anyway… 

"He stood there in the circle, looking so dark and powerful, like Hades about to snatch up Persephone. Then he raised his hands, and said, 'You have summoned me for a purpose. What is that purpose?' 

"I really think that it was then that I fell in love with him. It was just the way he spoke, not in a scary, deep voice, like you might think. He had such a beautiful voice, almost like a woman. He was so sure of himself. 

"Nobody would speak, at first. We had all been drunk when we made the circle, and none of us thought we had done it right. But the sight of him sobered us all up right away. Eventually, someone, don't remember who, told him that we supported his cause, and we wanted to join him. 

"He made us all take an oath, and swore us to secrecy. Then he gave us the Dark Mark, on our arms. He just touched the skin, and said the words." Annie rolls up her sleeve to show Rachel the vestigial mark. She's planning to get hers laserased as soon as she can get the money. 

"It was a lot of fun after that, for about a year. We were out all the time, scaring Muggles and generally making a mess. Then, it started to get serious. People started dying. 

"I'm not proud of this, but I was actually an Assassin for the Death Eaters. I killed three people; some MI6 spook that was poking around one of our meeting sites, a Death Eater who left early, and a reporter that was on the verge of figuring out something important. I don't remember what it was that was so secret. It doesn't really matter now, though. 

After I killed the disloyal Death Eater, your father called a meeting with me, and me alone. He said the usual stuff, about how I was very loyal and all that. Then he started telling me how beautiful I was. Then he kissed me." Annie smiles in memory. 

"What then?" Rachel asks, her grief lost in the story. 

"He promised me that if I finished a mission for him, he'd marry me. I went out and did the deed, and I came back to him, showing him the blood on my hands. We got married right then and there. 

"It was wonderful for a while. He treated me like a princess, pampering me, showering me with gifts, giving me power. He laid the world at my feet, for me to do with as I pleased. I thought he loved me. Then I had Scott, your brother. 

"Eight days after he was born, while I was holding him, Voldemort came striding into the room and demanded that I give him the child. He said he was going to raise Scott as a Death Eater, to be his heir. 

"I was aghast. I didn't want Scott to be raised like that, to be evil all his life. I wanted him to have a choice, whether he would be a Death Eater or not. But your father wanted to pervert him from the beginning." Annie's eyes tear up as she recalls her anguish. "I didn't want that." 

"So I had to give him away. I snuck out one night, and left him at the doorstep of a nursery school somewhere in America. I couldn't leave him with anyone I knew, because I knew that Voldemort would look for him everywhere. The one place he wouldn't suspect was that I left him in America." 

"There's a big witch culture in America, you know," Rachel comments. "Someone that was loyal to Dad could have found him." 

"There wasn't a big subculture at that time," Annie explains. "They were all undercover. Anyway, the next morning, he came into my room again, and told me to give up Scott or he would kill me. I looked him in the eye and told him that I had killed Scott, rather than have him turned evil. I had burnt his body and cast the ashes to the four winds so that no one could ever find him. 

"Voldemort told me to get out of his sight. He threw me out of the Death Eaters, told me that it was only because he had once loved me that he did not kill me. Of course, that wasn't why. When we had got married, our lives had been bound. Killing one of us would kill the other. 

"I wandered for a while, looking for a purpose. None of the Death Eaters would take me, because I had been rejected. But nobody else would take me, because I had once been a Death Eater. I got a job in a Muggle record store. I hated it. 

"A few years later, I met up with your father again, at a bar somewhere. One thing led to another, and we spent one night together. He was gone before I woke up. But I got pregnant again, this time with you. 

"He found out, of course. I was so scared that he would demand that I give you to him—I didn't have enough power left to resist him. But he didn't want you. So now I have you." Annie hugs her daughter. 

Rachel snores lightly. She's fallen asleep. Annie smiles, puts a pillow under Rachel's head, gets a blanket and draws it over her. "Sleep tight, darling." 


End file.
